S U P M A C R 2013 E B O T C O
a n i l o r a C rth o e N w e sity on Ris e b N O e • ? ts Th Democra ned to NC
pe What hap • ? e iv s s ogre Is God Pr
CONTENTS FROM THE EDITOR
Dear Readers, I worked in New York City this summer, and my boss, roommates, friends, and a surprising number of random people I met were from North Carolina,. North Carolinians were legion to the point I wondered how there were any actually left in the Old North State. Occasionally, a fellow Tar Heel would try to bond with me over the policy coming out of the North Carolina General Assembly headlines. We got out at the right time!” they might say. And I would shyly remind them that actually, I was going back. But of course, I was eager to get home. It’s an exciting time to be in North Carolina, and especially to be a college student. Say what you will about the NCGA this session; they’ve ignited a passion for home among our generation. The energy that went into these stories about the state we all consider home is palpable throughout the issue. We’re interested in the effects of religion on the Moral Monday movement (8), we’re uncovering the road that brought us here (10) ,and we’re even finding things to laugh about (18). We hope that our magazine will get you as excited about North Carolina as we are! Happy reading! Grace Tatter Editor-in-Chief
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IS GOD PROGRESSIVE?
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WHAT HAPPENED TO NC DEMOCRATS?
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OBESITY ON RISE
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From the Blog Settling In Reflecting on Moral Mondays Is God in Favor of Progress? Re-Branding in NC The Long Road to Raleigh Who are the UNC Board of Trustees? NCGA Satire
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Young, Poor, Hungry 19 Big Gap, Little Consensus 20 From Inside the Truck 22 Student-Athletes Leading Campus in 23 Sexual Assault Awareness Boy vs. Girl Majors 24 Beyond Coal 26 Goliath’s Gone...Now What? 28 From the Instagram 30
STAFF grace tatter editor-in-chief troy homesley executive editor lily clarke, ina kosova, nathan vail managing editors
kyle ann marie sebastian executive editor, campusblueprint.com
gayatri surendranathan managing editor, campusblueprint.com
sophie bergmann creative director carey hanlin, MORGAN BURKE public relations and social media director
hannah nemer photo editor carey hanlin, kyle ann marie sebastian, ina kosova, lily clarke, gayatri surendranathan, nathan vail, cole wilhelmi, joe calder, christopher phomprasetu, norman archer, matt keenan. anita simha, lindsey kellogg, claire peterman, layla quran, kyle villemain, tony liu, wilson sink, thomas gooding, faimA ramiirez-hirschauer, abby lantz staff writers sophie bergmann, christopher phompraseut, natalie curnes, grace tatter, carey hanlin designers
tony liu, anisha padma, natalie curnes photographers
aaron clayton treasurer
On the Cover: “NC in a White Oak Leaf” by Lily Clarke
FROM THE
BLOG
Campus BluePrint publishes blog posts daily. Here are some of the best from the blog since our last print issue. To read the whole posts, visit us at campusblueprint.com.
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Alexis was never on active duty, and even the title of an ‘honorable’ discharge is questionable because his commanding officer wanted to give him a less than honorable discharge. A source in the Navy told CBP that ‘it is pretty unusual for an officer to indicate that he would have preferred to issue a less than honorable discharge, and that you would have to do something pretty drastic to warrant anything but an honorable discharge.’
Editor-in-chief Grace Tatter discusses the legacy of student activism at UNC in “A Call For Epochal Times” (April 30).
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Online editor Kyle Sebastian reports on the necessity of Plan B (June 12).
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As students at a public university, we have a duty to fight for North Carolina. If you’ve taken professor Leloudis’ History of North Carolina course, you might be familiar with this quote from former chancellor Bill Friday: “Every morning a million North Carolinians get up and go to work for wages which leave them below the poverty line, so they can pay taxes that finance the education you receive at Carolina. Your job is to figure out how you’re going to pay them back.
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A 2010 study by Elizabeth E. Miller, M.D., Ph.D, found that 35 percent of women ‘who reported intimate partner violence (IPV) also reported birthcontrol sabotage’ which may serve to explain the high rates of unintended pregnancies seen in women in abusive relationships.
We haven’t had what anyone in their right mind would call a real pay raise since 2008.
A teacher quoted in Matt Keenan’s article about the state of education in NC (Sept. 29).
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Managing editor Lily Clarke explores the September Navy Yard shootings in Washington, D.C. (Sept. 27).
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Managing editor Nathan Vail discusses how current Chancellor Carol Folt and former chancellor Holden Thorp misread sexual assault on college campuses as a “pressure cooker” inevitable to explode (June 20).
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In both Orol’s and Sueyoshi’s narratives, there appears a similar theme: that of privilege. Both students began by pointing out the fact that they chose to be arrested, that they discussed the decision at length with family and friends, and then chose to join the crowd of individuals waiting to be arrested.
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Grace Tatter and online managing editor Gayatri Surendranathan talk to retired Chapel Hill High School English teacher David Bruton about how he almost lost his job for teaching gay and lesbian literature in 1993 due to a group called Putting Children First (Sept. 25).
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Bruton can’t talk about what happened now without getting emotional: during school hours one day, all the teachers got up and gathered in a circle around the flag pole, linking hands. Students joined, until the circle could not get any bigger — so they formed another one. Bruton recalls being enormously grateful for the accepting work environment.
[T]hen-interim president Folt used similar words [as Thorp] to describe the threats of rape and sexual violence at Dartmouth. According to The Atlantic, she said the campus climate was a ‘pressure cooker very close to exploding.’ Look closer at this analogy, and you can see that it is more than just a faux pas. Both administrations had their hands pressed on top of the lids... it is their fault if it exploded.
Managing editor Ina Kosova breaks down why two UNC students were arrested for civil disobedience during this summer’s Moral Mondays (June 20). 4 • OCTOBER 2013
SETTLING IN
The lasting effects of North Carolina’s new political climate
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PHOTOS BY CAREY HANLIN
What’s next? NATHAN VAIL
I Love Mondays
the protests in downtown Raleigh, stuLate on Monday afternoons this sum- dents often organized carpooling parties mer a strange conglomeration of people to the action. “ When the voter suppression laws were showed up in front of the North Carolina Legislative Building to protest a variety introduced, I got more and more enraged. I started particiof recalcitrant pating in more bills that were As people marched into Moral Mondays.” pushed forthe assembly, there was Moral Mondays ward. Vote were named suppression, a marvelous long line thusly because labor, abortion, of people of all kinds of what the multiwomen’s rights, beliefs kind of slowly faceted coalition all came to the filing [into the North represented was forefront in Carolina Legislative diametrically opwhat seemed posed to what to be an effort Building]. McCrory’s adminon the Repubistration and the lican’s part to -Michael Dickson, NC Legislature shoot themsenior were advocating selves in the for. The name foot. was antagonistic toward the legislature, But they wouldn’t back down. The protests made gains in popularity and making it easier to obtain wide support. Michael Dickson, a senior opinion staffer legitimacy as people were arrested for demonstrating inside the NC at the Daily Tar Heel, likewise spent his summer in Chapel Hill, usually in the DTH Legislative Building. “My initial draw was my frustration with newsroom. However, he made it to Rathe administration in Raleigh,” said Mag- leigh on three Mondays. Though there were many different gie Walker, a junior from Pennsylvania who was in Chapel Hill over the summer. groups, “there was lots of comradery,” Though UNC’s campus was a far cry from Dickson said. “Reverend Barber, people
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of faith, people of labor, people who are women, people who are students…” The list goes on.
Arrests The infamous arrests helped give the protests a predictive structure. Protests started at about 5:30 with speeches and songs. “As people marched into the assembly, there was a marvelous long line of people of all kinds of beliefs slowly filing in, Dickson recalled. “It was great.” Once inside the NC Legislative Building, hymnlike protest songs would be sung, often in the title Civil Rights-era classics like, “We Shall Overcome.” Protesters sat on the tile floor or high in the upstairs ante-room flanked by one or two lone police officers. Then, two buses would drive up beside the street next to Halifax Mall and people would be scooped up by the armpits and gently whisked away to the awaiting busses. “The busses ship them off to prison but they usually needed to take multiple trips.” The sidewalks outside would then be full of people. “This is what democracy looks like, that is what hypocrisy looks like!” protesters would yell, but were careful not to bother the police. “There was an emphasis on civility and
PHOTO BY CORINNE WHITE
MORAL MONDAYS:
being gracious to the cops. We were told to focus on that the policemen were just doing their jobs.” Arrests became almost a boasting right among demonstrators. UNC faculty, members of the NAACP, Planned Parenthood, and more found themselves with their hands behind their back on their way to a bus. On the Memorial Day Moral Monday, the Carrboro’s Council of Aldermen had quorum in prison, including the Mayor. Over the summer more than 1000 people were arrested, and 900 are currently waiting for a court date. After the busses left the demonstrators usually vacated the area on their own.
Motorcycle Abortion Bill On days where there was no protest supporters in pink representing Planned Parenthood were pugnacious but peaceful as they lined the sidewalk in front of the Governor’s Mansion. A sign or two said: “Honk if you love women’s rights!” and sure enough supporters pressed the front of their steering wheels as they sped by. They even got a visit from Governor McCrory, who, with a plate full of cookies, bombarded the protestors with a series of “God bless… God bless” before he re-
“There’s been a lot of really awesome connections happening,” Walker continued. “There are many student groups that have a stake in these issues. These groups are coming together and finding out ways to make a coalition of like-minded citizens. It’s students rallying with community members as well. It’s not just students getting angry at rising tuition costs, but students getting angry that communities right next door are being oppressed,” she said. “Everyone suffers.” With the General Assembly no longer in session, protests have dispersed across the state and into living rooms, dorms, and kitchens of those affected. “My family talks about politics a lot more because of the protests than they would have withtreated to his house. This was the same out. And I think that’s a positive,” Michael day McCrory passed the motorcycle aborsaid. tion bill. (And if you know what I’m talking “Hopefully what we’re doing now is creabout just by saying “motorcycle aborating a movement,” Walker told me. “It’s tion bill,” that’s insane). Needless to say, been exciting movement building.” Her the women in pink returned the cookies hope, like the hope of many involved in to the governor’s front gate, asking him Moral Mondays, is that come spring stuin return for their rights. The Senate Bill dents and other organizers are significant353 was signed ly more organized. by Governor McOne way to practice Crory in July, and On the Memorial Day is by concentrating was a motoron the problems on Moral Monday, the cycle safety bill campus. Carrboro’s Council of with sweeping “It’s something Aldermen had quoabortion restricthat students are tions tacked on. rum in prison, includalready enraged “It was absurd ing the Mayor. about. As students to talk to everywe are involved one at Planned with gender neutral Parenthood outhousing, the Board of Governors threatside the Governor’s Mansion after it had ens to take it away because it’s frivolous actually happened,” said Walker, still in and a ‘distraction.’ Excuse me?” shock. During our discussion, Dickson nods over his coffee in retrospect. “I’m hoping Here on Campus it stays the course and stays relevant and Though the NC General Assembly is not fresh enough to maintain media attenin session right now, they’ll be back in the tion.” spring, and students hope the protests The Legislature would say it doesn’t worcontinue with the same momentum that ry them. They and Governor McCrory have caught the attention of many across the tried different ways to diffuse the opposination. tion, but the students at UNC don’t seem
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PHOTO BY CORINNE WHITE
A police officer rides by protesors at the first Moral Monday on May 1 as they march to the NCGA.
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GOD IN FAVOR OF PROGRESS?
THOMAS GOODING row of police officers observed the demonstration in silence, their hands behind their backs. A group of faith leaders stood together, some with heads bowed in prayer, some with signs raised high above the crowd: “VOTER SUPPRESSION IS UNJUST.” The elderly woman wearing a doveembroidered stole probably didn’t expect to be arrested that day. Neither did hundreds of other Moral Monday protesters who walked out of the North Carolina Legislative Building in handcuffs. Banners waved in the air, prayers and hymns echoed across the lawn and through the Lobby. “Speak out for those who cannot speak, and for the rights of the destitute,” one man had written, quoting scripture. “Speak out and judge righteously; defend the rights of the poor and needy.” The protesters stood together, Jewish, Muslim, Christian, Buddhist—not divided by religion but connected through a common goal of social justice and political progress. They stood together, a demonstration of unity in faith, collaboration in spiritual-based values, not differing religious doctrines or fundamentalism. But surely that can’t be true.
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Not in North Carolina, where a religiously motivated amendment stained the state constitution with discrimination against same-sex couples. Not in North Carolina, where anti-Muslim sentiments produced an unwarranted ban on Islamic Sharia law in state courts in family cases. Not in North Carolina, where legislators issued a resolution that the General Assembly has a right to declare a state religion. History attests to the regressive influence of faith-based doctrine on politics—the ban on interracial marriage, the validation of racial segregation, and even the justification of slavery. But there is another side of religion— one that sometimes goes unnoticed compared to vocal right-wing fundamentalism, one that has become more and more visible in recent years. A side of religion particularly vibrant in front of the NC Legislative Building. From across the state, a diverse array of religious leaders have gathered in Raleigh to stand up against voter suppression laws, the repeal of the Racial Justice Act, Amendment One, the denial of the Affordable Care Act Medicaid expansion, the reduction of unemployment benefits and abortion restrictions. The Rev. William Barber, president
of the North Carolina chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, is leading the faith-filled movement known as “Moral Monday.” Characterized by diverse faith traditions, the protesters represent a growing religious-left, which influences progressive politics not through a distinct doctrine but through the values of diverse faiths and beliefs. “I was driven to Moral Monday by a sense of justice,” said Patrick Conway, a UNC professor of economics and one of the protesters arrested during the demonstrations. Conway, a Roman Catholic, believes the rejection of Medicaid expansion and the reduction of unemployment benefits are not only poor economic decisions but major issues of morality. “Our main concern should be fair treatment of the poor,” he said. “My parents brought me up in a conservative faith, but they would not be Republicans in this state, not with this tremendous disregard for those who are poor and disabled.” Beyond the Moral Monday demonstrations, progressive religious movements in North Carolina have been significant in supporting same-sex marriage, empowering low-income communities
PHOTO FROM WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
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decisions. Despite the United States’ devotion to the separation of church and state, it appears that faith actually inspires legislation and galvanizes public opinion. However, if the impact of religion on politics is not institutional but morality-based, is it acceptable for religion to affect legislation? “By all means,” said David McDonald, a sophomore history major. “I think faith can indirectly influence politics because it depends more on the values of the faith, instead of the religion itself.” However, although religion may encourage political reform without directly impacting legislative policy, there is still a risk of alienating citizens who do not necessarily adhere to a religious tradition or faith in general. “Why would we enforce a set of laws that extend from only one religion?” asked Alexis White, a journalism and mass communication major. Most progressive religious leaders argue that the ideals faiths share and the strength of unity developed from
common beliefs are viable influences on politics, without importing doctrine or religious tradition. Religion is used as a means of organization. It establishes strength in unity, a powerful connection through common principles. It provides a platform that people use to justify or question the implications of political decisions and to inspire people to take action against unethical or discriminatory legislation. It’s not the religion that influences politics but the ideals—values shared by many regardless of spirituality. If, indeed, religious doctrine does not explicitly affect the laws by which our country is governed, is it still acceptable for faith-based endeavors to incite government action and political progress? Tell us what you think at www.campusblueprint.com.
PHOTO FROM WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
and endorsing immigration reform. “Religious values can inspire progressive legislation because our beliefs manifest in our choices, how we spend our time and how we treat people,” said Max Malter, a sophomore political science major and co-president of the UNC chapter of J Street U. A campus organization focused on establishing peace between Israelis and Palestinians through political advocacy, J Street U utilizes faith to inspire but not dictate US foreign policy. The Jewish organization illuminates religious values that declare fair treatment for all—values that contradict regressive political action of fundamentalist factions. Emboldened by similar ideals of progress, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu and Baha’i organizations are collaborating with the National Conference for Community and Justice to eliminate religious discrimination, advance gender equality and support low-income families in North Carolina. Green Street United Methodist Church in Winston-Salem has decided not perform any marriages until all couples can legally wed. A Charlotte religious association contributed to a national campaign dedicated to finding a path to citizenship for most undocumented citizens in the United States. Second Harvest Food Bank of Northwest North Carolina engages in advocacy projects to improve nutrition in underprivileged public schools in the state. “Faith isn’t necessarily conservative or progressive, whether you’re red or blue, whether you’re right or left,” Conway said. “Christianity—and all religions— calls us not to be concerned about our own self-interest but to look after the poor.” There is no doubt that faith has played a major role in inspiring progressive change in US politics. But should it? Opinion varies in regard to the role of religion as an influence on political
Rev. William Barber, chair of North Carolina’s NAACP, was a leader at Moral Mondays.
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RE-BRANDING
NC LAYLA QURAN
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trast to what we know of the way the are now seeking to expand to the intermedia deals with protests in American net. State newspapers must make critisociety. It underscores this idea that the cal choices of what to cover and what Moral Monday protests have created a not to cover. As a result, investigative, very unique and important opportunity analytical reporting has declined in for itself going forward.” Andrews went the past decade. News articles are anon to explain how the coverage of the swering ‘What happened?’, rather than Moral Monday protests in national and ‘How does this impact us?’ Although state media was unique. The gathering new non-profit investigative ventures of North Carolinians in mass numbers have been created such as ProPublica created an environment where televi- and City Limits, they cannot pick up the sion and newspapers were forced to slack for all of the unaired and unheard attend the protests. Media attention stories. According to in turn created the American greater susteJournalism Renance for the Sometimes what’s view, in 2008, Moral Monday wrong with the newsnearly 6,000 protests, and papers isn’t what is in daily print jourfor critics of the nalists were McCrory adminthe newspapers, it’s fired, and local istration. what’s not in the newstelevision news The state facpapers; what they don’t lost 1,200 jobs. es major changMedia outlets es in policy in have enough reporters with dwindling a media envito cover. or no longer ronment with existing Invesless revenue - Ferrel Guillory, tigative teams and reporters to cover it all. professor are no longer able to support Newspapers in particular are experiencing massive the labor-intensive, time-consuming drops in revenue as advertisements, tasks of really outing the bad guys. In regards to the NC General Assemwhich were once used to pay reporters,
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orth Carolina wears a new brand nowadays. State policy makers are enforcing sweeping changes, and the media has bought into the rebranding of North Carolina as a conservative, even backwards, state. The narrative of the state has changed altogether. What was once a North Carolina that President Obama could carry, that had modernized with the banks in Charlotte and established the Research Triangle Park, that hosted a Democratic National Convention, suddenly changed in the matter of a few months, a move that unsurprisingly has turned heads in the national media. The New York Times wrote about the North Carolina General Assembly on the front page. Rachel Maddow devoted several segments to voter suppression. The Nation wrote a feature about Moral Mondays. Because the media isn’t totally spinning a sad story about North Carolina; Moral Mondays have brough as much attention to the uprising in the state as it has to the politics of the state legislture. At a panel discussion organized in September by Scholars for North Carolina’s Future, UNC Sociology professor Andy Andrews said, “If we think of the ways in which the Moral Monday protests have been covered so far, it’s a striking con-
PHOTO BY WORLDATLAS.COM
bly, state media has focused on what changes are taking place, rather than the impact of those changes. Ferrel Guillory, a professor of the practice in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication, founder of the Program on Public Life, and Campus BluePrint’s faculty advisor explains, “Sometimes what’s wrong with the newspapers isn’t what is in the newspapers it’s what’s not in the newspapers; what they don’t have enough reporters to cover”. Diminishing media staffs makes it more difficult to scrutinize people and choices, a phenomenon that is not only unique to NC but that takes place all over the country. “For example, you probably know House Bill 589 as the NC ID bill, but it also changes the date of the NC presidential primary in 2016,” Guillory notes. “Have you seen anything written about the consequences of the change of the date in the primary? It’s one provision of this big bill.” Liberal-leaning national media such as the New York Times Editorial board, the Washington Post, and the Rachel Maddow Show have typically depicted the state in a general direction as moving backwards. Regarding the Voter ID bill, the national media failed to scrutinized all aspects of the bill, but rather emphasizes the big picture as “voter suppression.” The Rachel Maddow Show contributed an entire segment on the Voter ID law in NC directly from Elizabeth City. An African-American student at Elizabeth City State University, Montravius King, was prohibited for running for city council on the grounds that his on-campus address did not establish him as a legitimate resident of the city. FOX News has also focused on how individuals have been impacted by legislature, but presents the opposition to the NCGA as “ultra-liberal” and irrational. In a story published on Sept. 19, 2013, FOX News reported on a profes-
sor at Temple University who had spoken at a meeting with the College Republicans , a “right to work” discussion hosted by and featuring a representative from Pennsylvania Right to Work Defense and Education Foundation. They described the professor as spouting off a vulgar rant, though he claimed he was only trying to initiative dialogue about the state of North Carolina. Biased media coverage contributes to a sense of polarization in the state. National press like the Washington Post and the Atlantic have focus on the extremity of the laws passed in North Carolina, attributing it to the fact that the Republican party is in control of all main levers of the state legislature for the first time since 1870. The Huffington Post has spotlighted editorials including, “North Carolina Trying to Compete With Ohio and Texas in Lunacy”, and “The Charlotte I Almost Had”, highlighting how Charlotte was the host of the Democratic National Convention only a year ago. It will be several years before we know if the changes in NC legislature generally affect public opinion of our state and how others view living here. However, conclusions may be formed based on reactions of the media portrayal of NC. The Univeristy of North Carolina welcomes thousands of prospective students each year, and the Admissions Ambassadors give these students and their families tours every day. Carey Hanlin, Campus BluePrint’s PR Director, said, “On one tour, a mother made a disparaging comment about rising tuition costs at UNC, as if it was something the university as a whole should be condemned for. In an effort to defend the university itself, I told her about how rising tuition costs come from the NC General Assembly” Will the actions of the NC legislature and the media portrayal of the state re-
ally impact UNC and the quality of students at the university? “I would think that the way that states are perceived matters in terms of what’s seen as a good environment to be a student, a welcoming environment to be a business, a welcoming environment to be your employees, a place where you want to learn and want to study, a place that is accepting of you on the basis of what your sexual orientation is, on the basis of what race and ethnicity you are,” Daniel Kreiss, an assistant professor at the School of Journalism and Mass Communication, said. Guillory agreed, and elaborated how the University might go an unintentional rebranding. “There’s a potential problem. The potency of your diploma, has to do with the university’s brand and the university’s reputation. The potential problem that we’re facing is that the diminishment of state appropriation, the shift in focus in Raleigh will weaken the potency of your diploma.” National graduate schools and employers could take the actions of the state as a sign that UNC is not the university it used to be, with a long term effect on students here. Ordinary citizens could also begin asking if North Carolina is a state in which they can live and work, or if it is a state moving backwards altogether. “I flinch when I see a New York Times article that says, ‘the Decline of North Carolina’, Guillory said, “because I live in North Carolina and I don’t believe the state as a whole has declined but clearly the policy has changed and some of the shifts in policy I worry could lead to an interruption in the progress that the state had been making.” “And I would argue that a lot of us in this state are trying to sustain our businesses, our educational institutions.”
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THE LONG ROAD TO
RALEIGH Democrats’ path back to power begins far from the state capital — and it’s all uphill
KYLE VILLEMAIN hree years after losing power in the General Assembly and one year after losing the governorship, Democrats in North Carolina face a steep climb back to the majority. The combination of gerrymandered electoral districts, a major leadership crisis for the Democratic state party, and lasting effects of Republican success since 2010 threaten to keep them out of power for a long time. Beat at their own jigsaw game Almost every majority party takes liberties when it redraws congressional districts — both for national and state races — a decennial process that most recently came after the Republican takeover in 2010. Think the lines cannot be that skewed? A recent Slate article made a jigsaw puzzle game out of North Carolina’s misshapen districts. (Visit Campus BluePrint’s website to check it out.) Democrats used gerrymandered districts, along with many other factors, to hold a 102-year majority in North Carolina until Republicans sued and forced them to change the lines to more closely conform to county lines. After Republicans came to power and promptly redrew the lines with what was perhaps a slight eye towards politics, Democrats felt confident that
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they could simply repeat the Republican playbook and take it to court. They succeeded in bringing it to court, they just did not win. A three-judge Superior Court panel unanimously decided the redrawn lines must be upheld. “We lost,” former state senator Ellie Kinnaird said. “And it didn’t help that the Obama Administration, the Justice Department, approved the redistricting plans. So from that standpoint we were very disappointed.” After an unsuccessful court case and no prospect of a national challenge, the district layout was here to stay, resulting in a rapid change in political complexion. In 2010, six Republicans and seven Democrats held House of Representative seats in North Carolina;in 2012 the equation shifted, with nine Republicans winning seats. At the state level, Republicans moved into the majority in 2010 with 59 percent of the house; two years later with the new districts drawn, Republicans gained a veto-proof majority with 64 percent of the vote. Thus in a state that President Obama won in 2008 and lost by less than 100,000 votes in 2012, Republicans command dominating majorities with the vast majority of their seats in districts that are solidly red, with little
short-term hope of a Democratic victory. Tellingly, the best bet for Democrats to regain significant power at a state level is through the 2016 gubernatorial election where districting plays no part. In a Sept. 12 PPP poll, Governor Pat McCrory trailed in hypothetical matchups against four Democratic challengers. Scandal widens intra-party divisions While district gerrymandering has created a tough political environment for Democrats, the party has created their own problems as well. In 2012, the State Democratic Party Executive Director was fired for alleged sexual harassment, which eventually led to calls for Party Chairman David Parker to resign amid allegations that he failed to act soon enough in regards to the sexual harassment allegations. A complicated saga later, Parker eventually stepped down but only after it was revealed that almost a majority of the party wanted him to stay. The divisions deepened during the election of the Party’s new chair, Randy Voller, a man who won by just eleven votes and subsequently spent the start of his tenure pushing back on allegations of using party funds in Las Vegas and failure to pay back taxes, among other scandals.
It is awfully difficult to build a successful party structure with scandals and a divided party as the backdrop. In contrast, the Republicans have experienced significant success operating on a state level. An often cited, almost notorious, reason is their effective use of outside funding. A Think Progress story earlier this year decried the “one multi-millionaire [who is] turning North Carolina into a Tea Party utopia.” Art Pope, the multi-millionaire in the story, along with the nationally known Koch brothers, has pumped millions of dollars into NC politics. In 2010, Pope’s money targeted 22 legislative races and won 18 of them. The possibility of a similar deluge of outside money flowing to the Democrats is attractive and underway in some states, but may prove elusive in North Carolina. Kinnaird expressed doubt that North Carolina would be a target of Democratic money. “Money goes where power is, and we just can’t tap the same money that we used to tap when we were in power,” Kinnaird said. Orange County Democratic Party Chair Matt Hughes agreed in part, saying that progress is needed before money starts flowing to state-level races. “Democrats are going to have to prove that they can make gains in the legislature in 2014,” Hughes said. Hughes did predict that an influx of outside money for Senator Kay Hagan’s 2014 reelection campaign — a seat with great importance nationally — as well as North Carolina’s battleground status in the 2016 presidential race, will trickle down to state-level races. “A rising tide lifts all ships, and outside money spent on her helps Democrats down the ballot” Hughes added.
Association of County Chairs formed to coordinate between the 100 differOutside of Raleigh, however, various ent county parties. The newly elected initiatives have taken on even greater president is none other than Hughes. importance and hold promise for the Under his leadership, the group Democrats. Kinnaird’s recent decision aims to channel county parties “to to step down is a recognition of this make gains in the legislature; re-elect reality. Senator Kay Hagan; collaborate on a “I feel that my energy and time is statewide Voter ID program; and laying best spent to help get Democrats the groundwork for a Democratic vicelected statewide and restore our tory against Pat McCrory.” standing as a progressive beacon of At the top-level, first vice-chair of the light in the southeast” Kinnaird said in State Democratic Party Nina Szlosberga statement. Landis resigned citing conflict with VolA long-time state senator and widely ler as well as an ability to raise money respected more effeclegislator, Kintively outside naird is getting If you add up educaof the party to work on a structure. grass-roots tors, health care proviDespite the effort to roll dors, environmentalobstacles it is back another ists, social justice and clear there reobstacle to mains an openwomen, each of those Democratic ing for Demoprospects: the groups have been crats. One newly passed touched, harmed and needs to look Voter ID law are frustrated and they no further than and all its Moral Monday accompanywant to do something, protests to see ing provisions as in throw the burns the potential. limiting early out. We may have a “They’re overvoting and reaching and good chance of turning ending sameI think they’ll day registrathis around and getting continue to tion. rid of the Republicans. overreach,” Kinnaird Hughes said. has gotten an What does outpouring of - Ellie Kinnaird, that mean for support for her former state senator the voters and new initiative. the Democrats? “Immediately “If you add up educators, health care when I said [through a newsletter] I providers, environmentalists, social was working on the Voter ID project justice and women, each of those we got 300 people back saying how groups have been touched, harmed can I help,” Kinnaird said. After posting information on Facebook “1,100 people and are frustrated and they want to do something, as in throw the bums out,” said how can I help.” Kinnaird said. “We may have a good Within the official party structure, chance of turning this around and getdecentralized initiatives also hold ting rid of the Republicans.” promise. In 2011 the North Carolina
New Strategies for New Times
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Empty Coffers, and No Way to Fill Them
OCTOBER 2013
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BREAKING IT DOWN A Timeline of the Democrats’ Drastic Decline Nov. 2010 Republicans in North Carolina win majority in House and Senate of General Assembly for the first time in a century.
Nov. 2011 Democratic elected officials, the NAACP, and other activist groups file a lawsuit that alleges the Republican legislature drew congressional lines with racist intent.
July 2013 A three-judge Superior Court panel rules in favor of the General Assembly’s districts.
Nov. 2014 Will organizational and grassroots efforts result in a comeback for the North Carolina Democrats in midterm elections?
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July 2011 The North Carolina General Assembly approves new congressional district lines. Like the Democrats before them, the Republicans use intense gerrymandering. Four districts make Slate magazine’s list of the nation’s most gerrymandered.
April 2012 The North Carolina Democratic Party goes under abrupt change in leadership due to a sexual harrassment scandal.
Aug. 2013 State senator Ellie Kinnaird (D-Orange) resigns from the North Carolina General Assembly, in part because she felt there was little Democrats could do within the NCGA.
Who Are The UNC Board of Trustees? W. Lowry Caudill (R)
The North Carolina General Assembly appoints all new trustees to the UNC Board of Trustees, a body charged with chancellor selection, appointment and discharge of faculty, and budget administration, among other things. Partisanship is present even in University affairs, it seems, as each recently appointed member is a registered Republican. Overall, the Board is comprised of seven Republicans, three Democrats, and two Independents. Furthermore, only 2 of twelve members are women, and only 1 is less than 40 years old. Trustees are only allowed to serve two four-year terms before they must step down, but when a majority of the board fits one, over-represented demographic, only a certain set of ideas will thrive. All trustees are UNC graduates and all have found great success in the world. Some have held, or currently hold, very high positions in large companies and other organizations -- interestingly, many are leaders in the world of banking and investment. Phillip Clay was Chancellor of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology from 2001-2010, which was the highest rank any black official held in the school’s history. And Peter Grauer is the current Chairman of Bloomberg LP, succeeding current New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
Chair of Board Caudill reconstructed the board after becoming chair, condensing it into four major committees. He also chaired the search for the Athletic Director, Bubba Cunningham. Caudill also works as an adjunct professor of Chemistry at UNC, and teaches in the Entrepreneurship minor program. He is also Chair of the Private Fundraising Steering Committee for the Physical Science Complex and Vice Chair of the Executive Board of the Educational Foundation.
Alston Gardner (/)
Vice Chair Gardner chairs the University Affairs Committee. He expressed annoyance that the NC senators who introduced a bill to strike down gender-nonspecific housing and did so without consoluting the Board of Trustees. Gardner is also the founder and was CEO of OnTarget, Inc., a sales training and consulting firm, until it was sold to Siebel Systems in 1999. OCTOBER 2013 • 15
Sallie Shuping-Russell (D)
Secretary
Shuping-Russel is a member of the Finance and Infrastructure Committee. She is also an Investment Manager and Managing Director at BlackRock. She graduated from UNC with a BA in English and in Political Science in 1977 and completed her MBA from Columbia University in 1983. She is a trustee of the UNC-CH Endowment Fund, a director of the UNC-CH Foundation, and Vice Chair of the UNC Investment Board.
Jefferson W. Brown (R)
Board Member
Brown is a member of the Innovation and Impact Committee, as well as the Finance and Infrastructure Committee. He is a partner in the law firm of Moore and Van Allen in Charlotte, NC. He graduated from UNC in 1981.
Phillip L. Clay (D)
Chair of Innovation and Impact Committee Clay is Chair of the Innovation and Impact Committee, and a member of the University Affairs Committee. He is currently a professor of City Planning at MIT. He graduated from UNC in 1968, and was the Chancellor of MIT from 2001-2010. He serves as the President of the Board for The Community Builders, Inc., a nonprofit developer of community housing.
Haywood D. Cochrane Jr (R)
Board Member
Cochrane is a member of the External Relations Committee and of the University Affairs Committee. He is currently the chairman of the Board of Directors of DARA Biosciences Inc. He graduated from UNC in 1970 with a degree in Political Science. After starting his career in banking and healthcare, he has served on the boards of many companies.
Donald Williams Curtis (/)
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Chair of External Relations Committee
Curtis is the Chair of External Relations Committee and a member of the Finance and Infrastructure Committee. He is currently the CEO of Curtis Media Group, which operates 32 radio stations in NC and serves another 78. He is also on the Board of Directors for the North Carolina Association of Broadcasters. He has served as head of the UNC General Alumni Association.
Charles G. Duckett (R)
Board Member Duckett is a member of the External Relations Committee and of the University Affairs Committee. He is a partner at Battle & Associates, Inc., a marketing firm. He graduated from UNC in 1982 with degrees in Political Science and History. He has a history of service at UNC, where he has been on the National Development Council, the Board of Visistors, and the Carolina First Campaign Steering Committee.
Peter T. Grauer (R)
Finance and Infrastucture Vice Chair Grauer is Vice Chairman of the Finance and Infrastructure Committee and a member of the Innovation and Impact Committee. He graduated from UNC in 1968 and from Harvard Business School in 1975. He is the current Chairman of Bloomberg LP. He is also on the Foundation Board, the UNC Global Research Institute Board, and a Trustee at Rockefeller University.
Kelly Matthews Hawkins (R)
Board Member
Hawkins is a member of the Innovation and Impact Committee as well as the University Affairs Committee. She graduated from UNC in 1995 and served as an elementary school teacher in CMS for six years. She founded and currently chairs the Whitehall Society of the Flagler Museum. She is a member of the Hull Fellows, which trains people to become philanthropic leaders. She is an active volunteer in Charlotte.
Steven Lerner (D)
Finance and Infrastructure Chair Lerner is Chairman of the Finance and Infrastructure Committee, and Vice Chair of the Innovation and Impact Committee. He received his MA and PhD from UNC. He is founder and Managing Partner of Blue Hill Group. He is on the board of HealthEME, which provides digital health care services. Lerner specializes in helping small and medium sized businesses maximize their potential.
Dwight D. Stone (R)
Board Member Stone, class of 1973, is on of the External Relations Committee and of the University Affairs Committee, and serves as President and Chairman of the D. Stone Builders in Greensboro. He was on the 2011 Search Committee for UNC’s Athletic Director, as well as the 2012 UNC Chancellor’s Search Committee. He is the current chairman of the Board of Directors for the OCTOBER 2013 • 17 Educational Foundation.
Satire
NORTH CAROLINA ANNOUNCES SECESSION, ART POPE TO RULE CAREY HANLIN ormer North Carolina budget director Art Pope announced this week that the state would be seceding from the United States of America, and that he would soon be instated as Supreme Ruler of the New Republic of North Carolina. The announcement comes shortly on the heels of the news reported earlier this month that NC governor Pat McCrory had recently disappeared from the Governor’s Mansion. Though there have been some reports of sightings of McCrory walking aimlessly around backstreets of North Carolina in a fugue state, Pope says no credible evidence of these sightings exists. When interviewed about the planned secession and McCrory’s disappearance, Pope said “I’m really not that interested in spending tax money on searching for the guy. I just knew he wasn’t cut out for the job ever since he threatened to veto our bill that would’ve ended Sharia Law AND abortion. He obviously doesn’t have conservative values at heart.” Pope insisted that while he hoped McCrory was safe, it really was “what is best for the new Republic of Carolina.” “I’m really the only one who knows what’s best for this place anyway,” Pope said in the press release after declaring himself Supreme Ruler. When asked if elections would be
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held, Pope responded with “What is this, a democracy?” After facing criticism for the comment, Pope later clarified, saying “It’s just that I believe that some opinions are more important than others’.” The United States Congress met this week to discuss whether or not North Carolina should be allowed to secede. However, President Obama was skeptical about Congress’ ability to reach a decision in a timely manor. “I swear to God if we get another shutdown out of this, I’ll just nuke North Carolina myself and sort it all out later,” he told CNN. But Obama faced backlash from Russian President Vladimir Putin, who came out in full support of Pope’s plans. “If Obama does anything to hurt Arty, I just don’t know what I’ll do,” Putin said. Insiders say Obama has been eager to distance himself from Pope ever since reports started surfacing that Pope and Putin had been secretly meeting for years. “It’s definitely not like a gay thing,” Putin said in an editorial he wrote after the news came out earlier this month. In the press release, Pope also announced that the NC General Assembly would have to be reformed. “We have really solid statistical evidence that the Democrats in the Assembly
just aren’t doing their jobs right,” Pope said. “Most of them will just have to go.” Pope also announced a planned registry for all non-White-conservative-Christian-heterosexual-men of the planned Republic of Carolina. When the NC NAACP responded with a list of statistics about the importance of black people to the NC economy, Pope dismissed their efforts. “I don’t really trust statistical evidence,” he said. When asked about the proposed registry, Pope said it still has a few more drafts ahead of it. “We’re thinking of adding a registry for science-believers too,” he said. “We obviously can’t have a bunch of subversive Darwinites [sic] running around our nation.” The news has obviously garnered national attention, even from celebrities. Bryan Cranston, the actor who plays Walter White on the television show “Breaking Bad,” called Pope an “inspiration.” “The producers and I are discussing a sixth season now,” Cranston said earlier this week. “We really just see a whole new direction Walt can go now.” Queen Elizabeth II, while admitting that she doesn’t “usually care for American politics,” provided a more sympathetic view on Pope’s call for secession. “Maybe now America will see how truly annoying that kind of thing is,” she said.
YOUNG, POOR, AND HUNGRY:
Lack of affordable food in Chapel Hill area leads to paradox: how do you fight hunger and obesity at the same time?
FAIMA RAMIREZ HIRSCHAUER ne of every four children in North Carolina does not have enough food to eat and yet the state ranks fifth worst in the nation for highest obesity rates for school-aged children. Ashton Chatham is the executive director for TABLE, a non-profit organization that provides weekly emergency food aid to 170 elementary school children in Carrboro and Chapel Hill. “I don’t think that people really realize that kids are going hungry,” she says. While the towns of Chapel Hill and Carrboro are widely perceived as affluent, the most recent figures from the US Census Bureau show one in six families in our community lives at or below the poverty level. Childhood obesity results from a complex mix of ingredients: diet, physical activity, and the built environment. Alice Ammerman, director of the Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention at UNC, says that addressing a single aspect won’t solve the problem. Often, poor children live in low-income neighborhoods called “urban food deserts” that lack stores with healthy food choices like fresh produce, whole grains, and low-fat dairy products. Even when available,healthier foods are often too expensive for a family of four living on less than $2,000 a month. A $1.99 Jr. Bacon Cheeseburger at Wendy’s is a more filling option than a $6.29 Caesar salad. Low-income children tend to live in
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inner-city neighborhoods with few playgrounds for physical activity. Parents in inner-city settings frequently express their reluctance to allow their children to play outside for fear of exposure to violence, crime, and illicit drug use. Despite its high cost of living, Carrboro and Chapel Hill have large pockets of minority populations that tend to live together in low-income neighborhoods or apartment complexes such as Northside/Pine Knolls, Collins Crossing Apartment Homes or Meadowmont Village. Low-income preschool obesity rates for Carrboro and Chapel Hill are two points above state average.
Local Actions Maria Hitt works for the Orange County Partnership for Young Children. For five years she has worked as the NC Community Gardens Coordinator working mostly with low-income Hispanic families. The gardens located on MLK Boulevard provide lots, seeds, and materials to get families gardening and increase the access to fresh food. Hitt says children are more likely to eat fresh fruits and veggies if they see where they come from. “I’ve never seen children more excited that when they pull out a carrot and they want to admire it, carry it and then eat it,” she says. Wilmar López and his two children, Nathalie, eight, and Wilmer, three, have
been gardening since 2012. López tends his plot daily, and is often accompanied by his children. “He is one of the most dedicated of all the gardeners, coming almost everyday to check on his plot,” Hitt says. The garden is one of many local programs that tries to combat the pressing correlation between childhood poverty and childhood obesity. But Hitt says childhood obesity requires a broader intervention that addresses diet, socioeconomic and cultural factors. “I think in low income families, and especially in Latino families it is a sign of status and health to be a little plumb,” Hitt says. “Also their traditional diet has gotten Americanized.” The obesity epidemic is costly financially. A 2008 study by Be Active NC estimated that obesity-related medical expenses for youth in North Carolina cost the taxpayers approximately $105.13 million a year. According to a 2012 First Focus report, the national child poverty rate will likely remain high at 22.5 percent — more than one in every five children in the country. In North Carolina, the child poverty rate is expected to remain even worse, and among the highest in the country, at 26 percent. This data suggests that the health woes of the state, inextricable from poverty, are likely to persist. Imminent and sustainable intervention is needed.
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Local
BIG GAP,
LITTLE CONSENSUS
Even in North Carolina’s highest achieving school system, there’s a serious racial achievement gap. Why can’t anyone agree how to fix it? CLAIRE PETERMAN
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n the midst of the chaos and celebration that marked the end of the 2013 school year, Carrboro High School English teacher Christine Mayfield found herself anxious. Mayfield’s year-toyear contract was under review by the school’s new principal, LaVerne Mattocks. After five years teaching at Carrboro and 19 in various schools in Louisiana and North Carolina, the renewal of her contract had seemed to her to be a formality. This year, however, was different. Mayfield was told that her part-time position would be switched to full time, and that the administration was treating it like a new position. She was asked to apply for the job. “I thought it was something I’d just need to go through the motions of,” Mayfield said. After being interviewed, she was one of three being considered for two positions. “The other applicants were well qualified, but they hadn’t been there for five years already,” she said. “That was a point I tried to make in my interview — I had five years to build relationships with parents, students, staff, the community.” Mayfield was not rehired. “I asked why — I had high ratings, no complaints… He just said it was a well-qualified pool of applicants,” she said. Mayfield was not alone. At Carrboro High School, 21 staff members from last 20 • OCTOBER 2013
year were not present at the beginning of this year. The other high schools reported similar numbers; 21 changes occurred at East Chapel Hill High School and 22 at Chapel Hill High School. The turnover rate this year was significantly elevated in comparison to past years.
A District in Flux “Any time there’s significant change, there’s a period of adjustment,” said Carrboro Principal LaVerne Mattocks. In 2011, the district’s superintendent of 18 years, Dr. Neil Pedersen, retired. The year after, Carrboro’s principal Kelly Batten announced he would be leaving Carrboro High School to fulfill an administrative position in the Chatham County School District. Pedersen’s replacement, Dr. Tom Forcella, quickly discovered the unique set of challenges that the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City School District presented. The CHCCS district is consistently one of the highest ranked schools in the state based on per-pupil spending and test scores. But while more than 95 percent of white and economically advantaged students scored at or above grade level on standardized tests, only 69.7 percent of black students, 65.2 percent of Latino students, and 49 percent of economically disadvantaged students passed. “When I came to the district, we had
to establish a mission. The long term plan had run its course,” Forcella said. “What became clear was that we had an ongoing problem with the achievement gap that hadn’t been solved for years. We needed to have an honest discussion. We needed to focus on instruction,” he said. “Instruction is the number one way to close the achievement gap. If we focus on instruction, we make progress.”
Ditching Methods that Work Forcella quickly learned that some of the high schools — Carrboro included — had taken matters into their own hands and created hybrid classes. Instead of dividing classes into honors and standard students, the English department at Carrboro had begun teaching combined classes with differentiated work. Chapel Hill High School Assistant Principal Alphonso Donaldson taught hybrid classes at Carrboro before they were disbanded. “Working together, working more effectively. That’s the place where it started from,” said Donaldson. “That’s the idea. For me personally, one of the most enjoyable experiences was that we were trying something different and it was really collaborative. Kids were working together in different contexts — in and out of class. It was interesting
and beneficial to students.” While Mayfield did not teach the hybrid classes, she was an outspoken proponent of the practice. “We felt that ninth graders coming into high school aren’t all ready to make the choice between honors and standard, and we were concerned about the racial thing- honors is mostly white, standard is mostly black, latino, and Karen,” she said. “It allowed for richer discussion. For example, it’s hard to have a meaningful discussion about ‘A Raisin in the Sun’ in an all white class.” Two months into Forcella’s first year, the hybrid classes were abruptly shut down. An existing school board policy disallowed the classes, although they had flourished with Pedersen’s tacit approval. With this action, Carrboro’s English department found itself embroiled in conflict with the administration. According to Mayfield, the teachers arranged a meeting with Forcella, but his secretary called just before the scheduled time to tell them he could not come. “I think the fact that we did this ‘illegally’ and continued to push for it made us stand out as independent-minded people from the start,” she said. The purpose of the hybrid class model was to bridge the achievement gap, but according to Forcella, it seemed to hold the high achievers back. Mayfield disagrees: “The hybrid classes got rid of these conglomerations of people who don’t expect to do well. They’re lifted by the rising tide, is what we’ve found.” And so do the numbers: According to the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction, the achievement gap between black and white students narrowed by more than ten percentage points in a single year — an unprecedented amount for the school. Instead of using hybrid classes to close the achievement gap, Forcella brought in the Institute for Learning
(IFL), an education consulting company from the University of Pittsburgh. According to Forcella, IFL’s tenets mesh well with the district’s new long-term plan IFL provides trainings and pre-designed units for teachers at all levels. In addition, it states certain “Principles of Learning,” or best practices that are applicable to all teachers. According to the 2012-2013 budget, it cost the district $250,000, plus the cost of substitutes for the 10 days of school teachers must miss for mandatory trainings. “It’s paid for through grants and repurposing of old development programs,” Forcella said. “It pays for itself already in the changes we’ve seen.” Donaldson agreed. “I think IFL is offering us sound educational approaches,” she said. “I like what they stand for.” “I think the way we implement it and some of the work that comes with IFL… [needs] to be deliberate,” he added. According to Mayfield, while IFL’s goals are sound, the curriculum it imposes is not. The program encourages teachers to use techniques- like small group work- that are already commonly used. “We felt condescended to,” Mayfield said. But she said the real rub was a unit called Arguments and Methods, which required teachers to spend nine weeks teaching rhetoric using only three political speeches. Mayfield said a diverse reading list and more freedom to delve into the historical context of the speeches would have been more engaging and rigorous. The CHS English department decided to shrink the unit. Mayfield taught it in two weeks, following the unit to the letter and including the final assessment. The administration, she said, was unhappy. In meetings about IFL, Mayfield reported, the teachers would be scolded for “having a bad attitude.” She felt that when concerns were voiced about the
new curriculum, they were ignored. At the end of last year, Mayfield came into conflict with the administration. On a Friday afternoon, she, along with other teachers, went to talk to Mattocks about the unfair treatment of a staff member. After the meeting, she was unsatisfied. “We wrote letters to the Human Resources Department. We thought that was what we were supposed to do, we thought they were there to mediate. Instead, we were called into Lincoln Center [administrative offices] and berated,” said Mayfield. Soon after, Mayfield learned that her job was in jeopardy. The chair of the English department and another teacher in the department both resigned following Mayfield’s dismissal. They declined to be interviewed. Both Mattocks and Forcella believe that IFL and the hybrid classes were unrelated to the staff turnover this year. While teachers and administrators alike struggle to cope with the achievement gap through hybrid classes and the IFL respectively, Mayfield is unconvinced. “I guess I’d say that teachers and Admin have the same goals as far as what they say--I personally don’t see them doing much on the ground to achieve this. Not supporting teachers more actively in their goal to desegregate the classes, taking up planning/work time with IFL oriented in-service that isn’t grounded in where teachers and schools really are. These aren’t ways to close the achievement gap to me,” she said. “Seems like saying you’re trying to close the achievement gap is one of those righteous statements that no one can object to--whether or not that is truly the effect of your policies at the school and classroom level.”
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LILY CLARKE ou ladies, you look lovely. We’re gonna get you some nice steaming dumplings.” chuckles Ray, the young man working the ‘Face’ position at the Chirba Chirba Dumpling food truck, which is parked across from the Carrboro Community Center on North Greensboro Street. This year both Raleigh and Chapel Hill city regulations allowed food trucks for the first time, a change highly anticipated by the frequenters of Chirba Chirba, Parlez-Vous Crepes, Only Burger, and other food trucks that pop up on street corners and empty parking lots. While the Taco Truck in the Fitch Lumber in Carrboro parking lot claims several years of operation, the business is a new and exciting one for many-a-foodie entrepreneur. For students with tight budgets and schedules, food trucks offer tasty food sourced locally and prepared quickly. Matt Fisher, a regular at Chirba Chirba, says he has eaten there at least twice a month since discovering the truck six months ago. He orders the Bay Side Chive Dumplings, which, according to Matt, “are best crispy.” “When I realized I was spending seven dollars at Wendy’s on a Baconator, it was no longer cheap fast food. Chirba Chirba offers better food
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for comparable prices,” he says. But although Matt thinks it would “be good to have more food trucks around during the week,” he is most devoted to the Taco Truck, a food truck pioneer that has roamed Carrboro for more than five years. Not everyone waits for the weekend for food truck diversity. Risa Moore follows a schedule on Chirba’s website, and “will drive to Durham and Raleigh” for dumplings when she really craves them. Food Truck Rodeos and catered events are becoming popular in Raleigh and Durham. While there are more trucks in Chapel Hill, it still isn’t easy to operate in the college town. Fees alone surpass 850 dollars, and that doesn’t cover the cost of renting kitchen space to prepare food or truck maintenance costs. “The secret about food trucks are the people who work in them,” Ray, from Chirba says. When he’s not dishing out dumplings, Ray is an aspiring rap artist. “Everybody that works for Chirba is interesting,” he says. “There are music people, top notch chefs, there is a whole other world inside of food trucks”. At the Taco Truck, the world inside the truck is authentic Mexican. The mole pueblano, the secret ingredient to the
chicken enchilada, is mole sauce made in the pueblo where the owner, Elbina Martinez, comes from in Mexico. Martinez started the food truck six years ago because she “likes to cook and work in small businesses.” She and her husband own the food truck together, and while they don’t openly compete with other food trucks, Martinez admits she sees that there is “a little competition” among newer ones. The Taco Truck has been operating for six years out of the Fitch Lumber Yard parking lot across from Harris Teeter in Carrboro, and Jannet Gamez has been coming ever since it opened. Gamez knows “restaurants try to Americanize Mexican food, but this is what you would have at a taco truck in Mexico”. Not all food trucks offer such authentic cuisine. You probably wouldn’t find the Parlez-Vous-Crepes menu at any vendor in France. But the unique culture of food trucks is works getting to know. When asked if he liked his job, Ray replied that he gets to “chill, eat food, and talk with people from twelve to nine pm” every day. He loves his boss, Nate, and “would do anything for him.” Ray flashes a grin and asks, “Now who wouldn’t love that?”
PHOTO BY TONY LIU
FROM INSIDE THE TRUCK:
STUDENT-ATHLETES LEADING CAMPUS IN SEXUAL ASSAULT AWARENESS ABBY LANTZ
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oftball player and UNC junior Kati assault culture at UNC by initiating and Causey knows that as an athlete, continuing programs within their own she stands out. Whether they’re wear- ranks that address and prevent sexual ing Nike gear on campus or being fea- assault. The Department of Athletics brought tured in the media, Carolina’s athletes are a visible presence in the UNC com- Katie Koestner, founder of “Take Back the Night” and munity. Causexual assault sey, a foundsurvivor, to ing member If we can inform the speak to the of UNC SWAG freshmen and prevent men’s lacrosse (Something We some mistakes, then we and football Athletes Got), teams, the Stua student-athhave made an impact. dent Athlete Adlete run group visory Council that promotes Kati Causey, junior (SAAC), and any healthy lifemember of the styles through peer education, uses her visibility to UNC athletic community that wished to raise awareness about sexual assault attend last spring. Speakers Dr. Linda Hancock and Gina Maisto Smith, a conand violence. SWAG focuses on reaching out to oth- sultant hired by the University to ader athletes as friends and teammates, dress sexual misconduct, both spoke to reduce the chances of athletes being with groups of student athletes to faeither victims or perpetrators of sexual cilitate a discussion on the causes and assault. “If we can inform the freshmen prevention of sexual assault and suband prevent some mistakes, then we stance abuse. This year, the Department of Athletics has implemented reporting have made an impact,” Causey said. The University is facing federal in- guidelines regarding information about vestigations over its handling of sexual safety and security that will improve assault cases, including the high-pro- their handling of reported situations, file case of Landen Gambill, who, along and brought in a representative of the with Former Assistant Dean of Students Office of the University Council to speak Melinda Manning, a primary contact for to individual teams generally about sexual assault survivors, and five other campus policies on sexual harassment UNC students filed a complaint to the and discrimination at the beginning of U.S. Department of Education’s Office of the semester. Student athlete leadership groups Civil Rights in January. The Department of Athletics and student leaders in the have been particularly active in initiatathletic community have responded to ing programs to prevent sexual assault the ongoing conversation about sexual and violence. Kelli Raker, a developer
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of the One Act bystander intervention trainings that are intended to prevent interpersonal violence, met with SAAC representatives Sept. 18 to lead the athletes in One Act skills training. Junior men’s lacrosse player and SAAC representative Joseph Costigan said the training helped him to understand how big of a problem sexual assault is. “Informing people what [actions] are right or wrong really eliminates any gray areas,” said Costigan. The training was the first held specifically for athletes, but Raker noted that athletes have attended trainings before. Junior women’s lacrosse player Lindsay Scott is working with eight other student-athletes to launch “What Happened Last Night,” an awareness campaign that hopes to lower the number of sexual assaults on campus by focusing on younger athletes and monitoring the spikes in sexual violence and substance abuse that occur during events like LDOC (“Last Day of Classes”), large sporting events, and holidays like Halloween and New Year’s Eve. The project, part of a larger leadership training where student-athletes initiate a project together, hopes to improve the campus environment and “help students look out for each other and make smart decisions in bad situations.” “I know that when I heard all of this information at orientation coming into school I didn’t listen, thinking ‘this will never happen to me,’” Scott said. “But in reality it can happen to anyone.”
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Campus
BOYS VS GIRLS MAJORS
KYLE ANN SEBASTIAN n 2010, women earned 57.4 percent of all Bachelor’s degrees, 62.6 percent of all Master’s, and 53.3 percent of all PhDs. High levels of college attendance and academic achievement in higher education have led some to declare “The End of Men,” or, perhaps less hyperbolically, the achievement of gender equality. However, these numbers do not give a complete picture of female academic participation. Women remain underrepresented in majors with high earning potential, such as engineering, math,computer science, and pharmacy, according to a study by Georgetown University. The majority of “lucrative majors” were in engineering and on average were 13 percent female, with a high of 28 percent women in Chemical Engineering and a low of 3 percent in Naval Architecture and Marine engineering. Women hold about a third of degrees in math and computer science. Pharmacy Sciences and Administration comes closest to gender parity with women making up 52 percent of degree holders. An underrepresentation in high profit majors is paired with an overrepresentation in low return majors. Women make up 97 percent of those studying early childhood education, 88 percent of social work students, and 74 percent of counseling psychology majors. These patterns are present at UNC. Women make up 58.2 percent of the undergraduate student body, but are 90 percent of students in the School of Education,79.7 percent of students in the
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School of Journalism and Mass Communications, and 79.2 percent of students graduating with a degree in Psychology in 2012. Dr. Thomas DiPrete, professor of sociology and co-director of the Center for the Study of Wealth and Inequality at Columbia University offers several explanations for the gender gap. A gender gap in choice of major emerges before students begin college, in high school. According to research by DiPrete and his partner, Dr. Joscha Legewie, a recent Columbia graduate, this gap is minimized in “the most supportive high schools,” DiPrete wrote in an email, or schools that encourage academics and have the resources to provide academic support. Social context also matters: “schools located in relatively integrated local labor markets exhibit smaller gender gaps in plans to major in STEM fields,” DiPrete wrote. It may also be that women have different goals and values than men. “Several studies have shown that male students are more strongly oriented to financial success than are female students and they are more likely to weight heavily the labor market prospects of a major than are women,” DiPrete wrote. Women interested in high paying careers may have more success in certain fields. DiPrete notes that while women “have fully integrated medical and law schools” their paths to these professional programs differ from their male counterparts, with a stronger background in humanities and the social sciences. At
UNC, women make up 49 percent of law school students and account for 67 percent of students in the Eshelman School of Pharmacy. The business school is a clear outlier among the professional programs. Kenan-Flagler Business School’s undergraduate program is 40 percent women. This disparity becomes more pronounced in graduate school, with women making up 27.3 percent of the MBA program. So why is women’s enrollment in the business school so disproportionately low?
The Business School The problem does not appear to be overt discrimination. The business school admits about 50 percent of applicants and claims no difference in admission rates by gender. According to Anna Millar, admissions director for UNC’s undergraduate business program, “the reality is, we receive fewer applications from women.” While the business school has not set a formal quota or target for female students, the school is paying close attention to the gender distribution. “I spend more and more time trying to recruit women to the business school,” Millar said. Millar is not alone in her endeavor. Carolina Women in Business regularly hosts workshops and panels aimed at recruiting women to both the undergraduate and MBA program. The club holds a conference every year at which students can interact and network with
gendered division has economic implications; within a potentially lucrative major, women still largely end up in lower paying jobs, such as marketing, compared to their male peers. UNC may want to consider a more hands-on approach. When administrators at Harvard Business School noticed that female students were falling behind their male peers, despite comparable test scores upon admission, the school decided to institute intensive programs aimed at improving both female achievement and gender relations among students. In order to address female student’s lower rates of participation HBS provided “hand-raising coaching” and installed stenographers in classes to record participation and ensure that female students received credit. Stenographers likely also served to deter bias in favor of male students commonly observed in education. Studies have found that male students are more likely to call out answers, educators are more likely to call on male students and ask them higher-level questions, and female students are more likely to be interrupted by both educators and their peers. HBS faculty now use grading software that analyzes their calling habits and grading by gender, in order to alert them to any unconscious bias. The program produced outstanding
results, with faculty reporting greater female participation, improved grades, and a record number of women receiving academic awards. While the number of female Baker Scholars, those students in the top 5 percent of their class, had hovered around 20 percent since 2004, women made up 40 percent of Baker Scholars in 2013. One criticism of the program is that the business world is rarely so sensitive to gender. Within both education and industry, business continues to be a “boys club.” The perception that a field is “unfriendly to women” may deter women from pursuing the necessary degree, DiPrete notes. Harvard hopes to be the exception that changes the rule. After graduation, Fisher will be working for Citigroup’s sale and trading division, where she interned this past summer. Out of an internship class of 55, there were eight women. Fisher says while working for Citigroup she saw few female traders. “Usually when you come into sales and trading they pigeonhole you, in finance in general, into the sales side of finance because they think, ‘oh you’re bubbly, your personality lends well to being client facing’” Fisher says. “Women are pigeonholed into sales, into roles that require them to showcase their personality rather than their hard technical skills.”
PHOTO BY TONY LIU
female alumni and businesswomen from the community. Kenan-Flager offers Forté Fellowships, scholarships aimed at increasing the number of women pursuing a master’s of business administration. And for the past three years the Dean’s Fellows, a group made up of top MBA students, have focused on female achievement. These efforts have included the development of electives focused on women in leadership and communication. Movement toward parity has been slow. Programming focused on women is new and has yet to produce a measurable change. “We’re just getting there, despite the fact that we’ve been talking about this for a long time,” Millar said. UNC senior Audrey Fisher has gotten used to being one of the few girls in the room. In her three semesters in the business school she has had two female professors. Millar describes Kenan-Flaglar’s faculty as “male heavy.” A typical corporate finance class of twenty may have only four female students. Gender makeup varies by concentration. “There are definitely certain classes that lend to a female audience and others, mostly finance classes, you’re going to see guys taking those. Then soft skills like marketing and entrepreneurship and management and other things like that, I think more women find themselves in that area,” Fisher said. This
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BOARD OF TRUSTEES COMMITTEE CONSIDERS MOVING
‘ B E Y O N D C O A L’ ANITA SIMHA Members of the UNC Beyond Coal n the rise of “slacktivism” via passive link-sharing and status-posting, true campaign recognize this similarity and campaigning has become somewhat look to the members of this previous scarcer. At Carolina, however, this image movement for inspiration. During the is not completely accurate. UNC Beyond presentation to the Board of Trustees Coal, an active group on campus, seeks committee, junior Tait Chandler deto ensure UNC stops investing any of its clared, “We have stood up against injusendowment in the coal industry. Creat- tice before and we have an opportunity ed two years ago, its methods of activ- to do it again,” in reference to these ism and themes of social justice harken events. The current movement, like the South back to direct action in the age before Buzzfeed articles. In the interest of full African divestment initiative, includes disclosure, I am a new member of this themes of pressing social issues and human rights. In addition, both camcampaign. paigns are stuUNC Beyond dent-developed, Coal is not the We have stood up student-led, and first divestment camagainst injustice before fueled by student support. Even the paign to exist and we have an opportimelines look on campus. In tunity to do it again. similar: both camthe 1980s, a paigns drummed group called for divestment - Tait Chandler, junior up support for several years befrom compafore achieving an nies operating in South Africa during the apartheid audience with the Board of Trustees to regime. After several years of speech- discuss the endowment. Nonetheless, the path to divestment es, sit-ins, and collaboration with the Board of Trustees, this movement led is now much more complicated than it to successful divestiture in 1987. Five was in years past due to complexities years ago in 2008, UNC divested from in its supervision from comingled funds companies compliantly operating in to inclusion of other universities to increased division of its management. Sudan during its period of genocide.
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The strategies used by the two initiatives also differ in image. The campaign from the 80s engaged in far more nonviolent direct action tactics such as fasts, arrests, and the construction of shantytowns. The UNC Beyond Coal movement forgoes radical or unprofessional action, instead pursuing avenues through UNC Chapel Hill’s administration. By comparing to the South Africa campaign, members of UNC Beyond Coal have decided which actions to take and which ones to avoid. Furthermore, UNC-Chapel Hill was far from the first university to disinvest in South Africa. Other higher educational institutions divested from South African-affiliated companies beginning in 1978. Beyond Coal is, however, a leader in the push for coal divestment. In the fall of 2012, it was one of five initiatives in the country. Now, there are 308 nationwide campaigns. Although only six other American universities have divested their endowment funds from coal to date, UNC Beyond Coal members hope that this is a chance for UNC to continue in a tradition of leadership. The endowment, made up mostly by donations, and its managers currently operate with little transparency, investing in various stocks that comprise a portfolio. There is, however, good rea-
son to assume money goes towards member proposed holding off on any “the filthy fifteen,” a group of coal min- definitive action. He stated to the rest ing and burning companies with whom of the committee, “Certainly, we are we have relations. Duke Energy, which in a position today where we can recemployed Governor Pat McCrory for 29 ommend a working group.” In the end, years and which supplies energy to the committee decided to support formost of North Carolina, is listed among mation of a working group to research the viability of divestiture without any these. On Wednesday, Sept. 25, sophomore strings or deadlines attached. UNC Beyond Coal members, who have Anurag Angara, junior Tait Chandler, and junior Jasmine Ruddy presented the worked for their cause for two years, are case for coal divestment to the Board considering this pivotal moment a vicof Trustees Finance and Infrastructure tory. As the presenters explained to the Committee. Chandler called divestment Board of Trustees committee, the cause for coal divestment an “opportunity for has both economic Carolina to continTo show support and moral justifiue to be a leader of this dual issue, cations. Angara exin sustainability plains, “The most among universities the group has compelling reason across the country.” already collected to divest from coal The group spoke over 4,000 stuas a public univerfor fifteen minutes, sity is that the true proposing a workdent signatures cost of coal is 170 ing group of various for its petition in percent its retail valuniversity constitsupport of coal ue, which is shouluencies to further divestment. dered by tax payers research the feasiand detracts from bility of coal divestment before presenting its findings to the affordability and academic value of UNC.” Additionally, the Aperio Group the full Board of Trustees in March. The committee’s Chair Steve Lerner found that the added risk to a portfolio supported the students’ proposal, but would be one half of a thousandth of a he expressed hesitance in assuming percent by divesting from coal. Additionally, UNC Beyond Coal memthe working group would definitely lead to divestment, saying, “It’s real- bers contend that coal investment is ly a complex issue.” The committee, becoming increasingly risky due to which included Student Body President more and more stringent environmenChristy Lambden, was receptive to the tal regulations that limit its production. proposal in general, but wanted a clear In the past two years, 120 of the former definition of what it would entail. Chan- 520 operating American coal plants cellor Folt, who also attended, noted, were shut down because they did not “Before you start a working group, you meet these new standards. Ruddy acknowledges that those managing the have to have clarity on the charge.” The committee also expressed un- endowment are professionals with recertainty about a presentation to the gard to investment, but adds, “We’re Board of Trustees in the spring in case concerned that we’re not going to get research was still incomplete. Lamb- out before it’s too late.” From a medical standpoint, the group den, who supported the movement during his campaign, pushed back when a argues, coal causes various health is-
sues over its lifespan, from the mining process to burning to disposal. Because it is the most carbon-intensive of fossil fuels, coal burning also produces the most carbon dioxide, which fuels climate change. This leads into a moral issue, UNC Beyond Coal members argue; by investing in coal, the university is financially supporting these negative health consequences. By making claims about the morality and justifiability of coal investment versus scientific observations only, the UNC Beyond Coal campaign has made this a social issue versus simply an environmental one. Sophomore Jack Largess states, “For me, coal is a social justice issue in addition to being an environmental issue. It’s not only about environmental degradation and it’s not about pretending that divestment is going to make them mine or burn less coal. It’s about standing in solidarity with the people whose lives are hurt by these companies.” To show student support of this dual issue, the group has already collected over 4,000 student signatures for its petition in support of coal divestment. In a referendum last year, 77 percent of the student body voted in favor of divestment. Ruddy, as the Grassroots Coordinator for the group, spends a lot of time developing new ways to involve diverse members of the UNC student body. “Sometimes I like to think of this campaign as a second major,” she quips. Anita Simha is a new member of the Beyond Coal campaign. She has been wary of coal since regretfully receiving it for Christmas during early childhood.
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GOLIATH’S GONE… NOW WHAT?
INA KOSOVA y Aug. 30, as President Obama asked Congress to vote on limited military strikes in Syria, the United States appeared well on its way to another military conflict in the Middle East. But then, something happened to put an abrupt end to this hurtling towards war; Goliath set down his burden and walked away. In 2006, Michael Mendelbaum wrote a piece for Foreign Policy titled, “David’s Friend Goliath.” Goliath, according to the piece, is the United States and David is the rest of the world. Mendelbaum argues that, while it is fashionable for the majority of the nations of the world to decry American imperialism and self-interest, the fact of the matter is that these same nations benefit from the benevolent hegemonic order whose costs the United States must bear. But Mendelbaum, at the end of his piece, makes an interesting observation; a day will come when the American people no longer wish to bear the costs of the maintenance of hegemony. President Obama, in his speech on Sept. to the UN General Assembly, reiterated Mendelbaum’s concern: “The danger for the world is that the United States, after a decade of war…may disengage, creating a vacuum of leadership that no other nation is ready to fill.” It would appear President Obama was
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being unduly prophetic; that danger has come, the United States has chosen to disengage. It was on Aug. 21 that reports began coming in of a chemical attack inside of Syria, in the city of Gouta. U.S. and United Nations intelligence would later confirm the use of sarin gas, a nerve agent classified as a toxic, lethal chemical weapon. President Obama, speaking to reporters on Aug. 20, 2012, made clear that the use of chemical weapons by the Assad regime would be the red line for his administration. Clearly, the Assad regime crossed that red line; on Aug. 30, 2013, President Obama asked Congress to vote on limited military strikes in Syria, targeting Syria’s chemical weapon stockpiles and seeking to deter the regime from future use of the weapons. It was Secretary of State John Kerry that was the most vocal supporter of military action for the administration. In a hearing in front of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Secretary Kerry proclaimed: “And history would judge us all extraordinarily harshly if we turned a blind eye to a dictator’s wanton use of weapons of mass destruction.” With the support of Speaker John Boehner and John McCain, it seemed reasonable to expect Congressional authorization of military action. But in a surprising move, on Sept. 10,
President Obama asked Congressional leaders to postpone the vote authorizing military action, choosing to focus one more time on diplomacy. In Geneva, Secretary Kerry and his Russian counter-part had developed a preliminary plan for a diplomatic resolution. Syria would hand over its chemical stockpiles to international monitoring bodies and this stockpile would then be destroyed by 2014. In his speech announcing the postponement, Obama’s tone was combative. Though he emphasized the importance of diplomacy, he refused to reject his original rationale for military action. “The images from this massacre are sickening,” he claimed. “Men, women, and children lying in rows, killed by poison gas, others foaming at the mouth, gasping for breath.” This willingness to step back does not appear to come from some new moral recalculation or rethinking of the logic of strikes; instead, President Obama’s hand was forced, both by the American people and by world opinion. As former Ambassador to Egypt, Frank Wisner, stated in a speech on Sept. 17 at UNC’s Global Education Center, we were “rebuffed by friends, rebuffed by our ill-wishers, without a chance that NATO or the Security Council would come to our support.” It was clear that memories of
PHOTO PROVIDED BY WIKIPEDIA COMMONS
International
Iraq and Bush’s false WMD proclamations were still ripe in Britain. The Cameron government was defeated by a 285-272 vote in Parliament on what should have been a rubberstamp vote; the motion simply stated that a chemical attack required an international humanitarian response that could involve military action. Members of the Parliament claimed they needed more evidence to corroborate U.S. claims of a chemical attack. Other countries in Europe, including Italy and Germany, also refused to support the possibility of military action. Putin’s Russia was the most vocal opponent of limited military strikes. In an op-ed in the NY Times on Sept.11, Putin claimed “millions around the world increasingly see America not as a model of democracy but as relying solely on brute force.” Nor did the American people wish to enter the Syrian conflict. In a NY Times/ CBS poll conducted on Sept. 10, people were asked whether or not they thought the Syrian government “probably did use chemical weapons against Syrian civilians.” 75 percent of people polled thought the Syrian government “probably did” and only 10 percent thought that they did not. But in a Gallup poll taken a few days later, from Sept. 11 to Sept. 12, when asked whether or not they favored military action in Syria, only 28 percent of those polled were in favor and 62 percent opposed. While the American people recognize the use of WMDs against the Syrian civilian population, they do not feel it the duty of the United States to hold the Syrian government accountable. And so, in a very public about-face, President Obama chose to accept Russia’s lastditch, diplomatic lifeline. Certainly, there are strong, substantial arguments in opposition to military action. In a panel discussion on Syria at the FedEx Global Education Center, the mood of the panelists was overwhelmingly anti-military strikes. Professor Sarah Shields was most vehement in her opposition to U.S. military intervention. “When the U.S. has intervened in the
Middle East,” she said, “we have managed to solidify inter-communal conflict, destroy infrastructure, and shatter lives.” Geopolitical concerns are also a relevant topic, with the potential of limited military strikes to spill out into a regional war, Saudi Arabia and Iran finding themselves on opposite sides of the conflict. There is also the more pragmatic issue of the limited nature of the strikes themselves; being so limited, they may wipe out the chemical stockpiles that the U.S. knows about, but they will not topple Assad’s regime and they will incur civilian casualties. But the existence of these arguments is irrelevant; they are not what changed the President’s position since he was hyper-aware of these same arguments when declaring his plan to pursue military intervention. What changed was the willingness to publicly lay claim to what has already been attributed to the United States: the pursuit of self-interest. Bashar al Assad’s use of chemical weapons on his own civilian population is not a matter of international security. If international security were being threatened, than perhaps it is more realistic to believe that Europe, at least, would be willing to react militarily. Nor is Assad’s use of chemical weapons a relevant threat to U.S. national security. President Obama’s sole reason for the use of military strikes can be whittled down to one thing: he publically declared, on behalf of the United States a red line and now he was expected, as U.S. President, to follow through on his threat. By choosing to ignore the action that this red line would demand, “we as Americans,” according to Ambassador Wisner, “have been dealt a dreadful blow to our international credibility as a nation that others could turn to.” But it is within our self-interest to avoid the loss of both blood and treasure in yet another military campaign in the Middle East. And so, finally fatigued at the ability of the world to free ride on the United State’s maintenance of international security, President
Obama and the U.S. people are willing to suffer this blow to our international credibility, to pursue our self-interest, and to disengage. But this leads to a disturbing question. Now that President Obama gave the world what it wanted, now that the United States no longer wishes to engage the international community in holding Assad accountable, who will be responsible for ensuring the basic human decency of the Syrian people? Certainly, the answer is not the United Nations. The United Nations has failed, once again, to uphold the principle of the Responsibility to Protect. State sovereignty, according to R2P, is the responsibly of that sovereign state, not its right. If this state fails to protect its citizens from categories including crimes against humanity, it is up to the international community to step in and offer this protection. Syria’s use of chemical weapons, in violation of the Chemical Weapons Convention ratified in 1993, is a clear forfeiture of its responsibly to its citizens. And yet, Russia’s position that Syria’s right to sovereignty must be defended has left the Security Council paralyzed and the UN irrelevant in the Syria crisis. Perhaps Russia’s diplomatic solution will come to some type of fruition. Putin will grab at a piece of world power and the international community will be satisfied at the destruction of Syria’s chemical weapons. But what about the Syrian people? Is Russia’s diplomatic resolution to the benefit of the Syrian people? The answer is no. The framework of the resolution depends on the cooperation of the Assad regime; this contradicts the purpose of Syria’s civil war, which has seen more than 100,000 lives lost in the attempt to remove Assad from power. It is difficult to understand how diplomacy can be pursued with a dictator who is willing to chemically poison 1,400 of his own men, women, and children.
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FROM
THE INSTAGRAM @revoltshewrote Our first photo contest submission from @revoltshewrote keep them coming! #moralmondays #photocontest #photography #northcarolina #nc #chapelhill #unc
Campus BluePrint staffers and readers began contributing to an Instagram account this summer. Most pictures were snapped at Moral Mondays, but we captured a variety of events (as seen on page 31).
MORAL MONDAY For more, follow us at @UNCCampusBluePrint
@whood Go to campusblueprint.com to check out the weekly wrap-up of the news by @gayatrisuren #moralmondays #mccrory #kerry #israel #palestine #students #nc photo by @whood 30 • OCTOBER 2013
Community members overflowed into the street at The Libba Cotten historical sign was unveiled today the Taking The Dream home to Chapel Hill rally this as part of the Statewide Folklife Festival #history evening #chapelhill #ncpol #civilrights #moralmon#music #carrboro #northcarolina days #marchonwashington
@gracet086
In April, Campus BluePrint published an article on “Those who educate well are more honored than the possibility of a Supreme Court overturn of Roe those who produce them” Paisley and Hanes 7th v. Wade. NC’s restrictive abroation legislation (no graders protest #ncga #education budget cuts in NC abortion clinics can currently exist under the new regulations) makes this all the more relevant. Winston-Salem #ncpol #ncga Check out the article: http://tinyurl.com/kxndupp #tbt #McCrory #NC #standwithncwomen #sb353 #moralmondays photo by Carey Hanlin
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Published with support from: Campus Progress, a division of the Center for American Progress. Campus Progress works to help young people — advocates, activists, journalists, artists — make their voices heard on issues that matter. Learn more at CampusProgress.org Also paid for in part by student fees.
Campus BluePrint is a non-partisan student publication that aims to provide a forum for open
dialogue on progressive ideals at UNC-Chapel Hill and in the greater community. 32 • OCTOBER 2013